Driving Whilst Using a Mobile Phone

Are you looking for the best Road Traffic Solicitors to defend you on a charge of Driving whilst using a Mobile Phone?

When it comes to protecting your driving licence, we understand the potentially devastating impact of a road traffic charge on the reputation, livelihood and liberty of those we represent.

So if you’re facing what for you is the legal minefield of a mobile phone charge, tip the scales in your favour - Get in touch now.

What is the law on Driving Whilst Using a Mobile Phone?

Regulation 110 Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 and Section 41D Road Traffic Act 1988

It is an offence to use a handheld mobile phone whilst driving – or to cause or permit another person to use a mobile offence whilst driving, for example, if an employer allows or requires his employees to answer a phone while driving. It is also an offence for a supervisor of a learner driver to use a handheld mobile phone while the learner is driving.

For the offence to be proved, the prosecution will require to show three things:

• Firstly, that the mobile phone was held by the driver in their hand.   
• Secondly, that the driver was using the mobile phone. Use is defined as ‘interactive communication’ and includes making or receiving a phone call, sending or receiving a text, listening to voicemail or obtaining access to the internet. Accordingly, simply holding a phone does not in itself amount to ‘use’.
• Thirdly, the person must be driving the vehicle, albeit that this would include the vehicle being stationary in traffic, given that the driver would still be deemed to remain in control of the movement and direction of the vehicle. 

Given, therefore, the complex legal questions arising from a mobile phone charge, it makes sense to protect your licence by obtaining early expert advice as to what can be done in your case.

What are the penalties?

The minimum penalty is 6 penalty points, though the courts have the discretion in appropriate cases - for example, due to previous driving offences - to disqualify from driving. The fixed penalty issued by Police Scotland will normally be for 6 penalty points and a £200 fine.

It’s, therefore, prudent to consider the impact of a mobile phone endorsement on your driving licence. For example, will the endorsement of 6 penalty points take you close to a  ‘totting-up’ ban now or over the next three years? Or, are you a ‘new driver’ having passed your test less than two years ago and, therefore, facing revocation of your driving licence if you receive the 6 penalty point endorsement resulting from a mobile phone offence?

Given the potential impact of a mobile phone offence on your future ability to drive, it makes sense to obtain expert guidance on what can properly be done to avoid or reduce the penalties in your case.

How can we help?

You can count on our award-winning team to identify the right questions, provide the right answers and deliver the best solutions.

Here are just some of the ways in which we can help:

• Fixed Penalty advice. If you are offered a Conditional Offer of Fixed Penalty or ‘police ticket’, we can guide you on the potential pros and cons of accepting or rejecting that Offer or ‘ticket’.
• Proof for or against ‘use’ of the phone. We can guide you on what evidence may assist you in demonstrating that your phone was not being ‘used’ for ‘interactive communication’ – for example, by producing your phone records of calls and texts.
• Emergency use? Is yours a case where it might be shown that in response to a genuine emergency, you were calling an emergency service? If so, it may be possible to satisfy the prosecutor or court that you have a complete defence to the charge.
• Credibility and Reliability of the prosecution witnesses. If you believe that the police or other witnesses are wrong in suggesting that you were ‘using’ a mobile phone, you can count on our considerable forensic know-how to assess and test the honesty and accuracy of the evidence against you.

What are the costs?

Firstly, given the importance of you finding exactly the right lawyer to protect your driving licence, we have the confidence to provide every client with a first, diagnostic consultation, free of charge.

Thereafter, depending upon your financial position and the nature of your case, it may be possible for us to represent you under the Scottish Legal Aid scheme. If, however, Legal Aid is not available or appropriate in your case, whilst any fee chargeable thereafter will depend upon the complexity of your case, we are always happy to provide you with the certainty of a fee agreed in advance, and, if you prefer, usually the reassurance of a fixed fee arrangement, rather than fees based upon each item of work.

Equally, if you have a motor insurance policy or house insurance policy which provides you with cover for the legal costs of defending a motoring prosecution in Scotland, we would always be content to discuss acting for you on this basis. If you are in any doubt as to the terms of cover under any such insurance policy, again, we would be happy to examine the terms of any such policy at your first free consultation.

To tip the scales in your favour, get in touch now.

So, once again, why choose Adams Whyte Road Traffic Solicitors to defend you?

Here are just 5 reasons:

• We are already the trusted choice of thousands of clients who over the years have relied on the expertise of our motoring law solicitors to deliver for them the best possible result in road traffic cases right across the country.
• For the countless clients who, year after year, choose us to protect their driving licence, we have an impressively high rate of success and satisfaction.
• Those who recommend or instruct us include individuals from fields as varied as law and policing, to medicine and banking, to sport and entertainment.
• In fighting to keep you on the road, our specialist solicitors provide the highest standards of technical knowledge, forensic analysis, and courtroom advocacy, for example in exposing and arguing against any technical or legal flaws in the case against you.
• Given the importance of you finding the right lawyer to protect your driving licence, we have the confidence to provide every client with a first, diagnostic consultation, free of charge.

To give yourself the best chance of the best outcome, get in touch now.